Jeweller alleged for forcing employee to drink acid

Rawalpindi - Police have launched investigations into a complaint lodged by a lady on Friday accusing a jewellery shop owner of making attempt to kill her husband by dosing him with acid on suspect of stealing a gold bangle from his shop.However, the jeweller denied the allegations and said his employee himself drank acid to avoid any possible punishment in the robbery case.Sub-Inspector Riaz Bhatti told The Nation that a lady namely Robina Zahid, a resident of Afshan Colony, tabled an application stating that his husband Muhammad Zahid, 42, was an employee at Zahoor Jewellers, located on Chan Shah Road. She, mother of four small kids, added that the shop owner Zahoor accused Zahid of stealing a gold bangle from his shop and tortured him mercilessly along with two cops in a room located behind the shop on May 20.“Zahoor and cops rubbed chillies on sensitive body parts of Zahid and then later put battery acid in his mouth forcefully,” she alleged . She informed that she brought her husband to emergency department of District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital where he was admitted in ICU. She said that Zahoor threatened her of dire consequences in case of approaching police, the SI quoted the lady.Earlier Robina Zahid, who was weeping while holding her one-and-half-month-old daughter in her lap outside ICU, told this scribe that the doctors and the paramedical staff had not informed police about the case. She said that she was being threatened by the accused. She appealed to chief justice of Pakistan, CM and IG Punjab to take notice of this atrocity and punish the accused.When this scribe called on Medical Superintendent DHQ Dr Khalid Randhawa at his office to get his version, he immediately called a DMS to his office and asked him about the condition of the patient. The DMS told the MS that no samples of blood and urine were obtained by the doctors so far for medical examination. Later, the DMS called police and cops arrived there for case registration.Chatting with The Nation, Dr Faisal said, “I am astonished as to why the CMO had not informed police about the case.” He said that it never happened that doctors hid such type of criminal cases. A doctor, who was treating Zahid, said that the condition of patient was in danger.Zahoor, the jeweller , when contacted, denied allegations saying he did not torture Zahid but just asked him as if he had stolen a gold bangle worth Rs 60000 from shop. “I asked Zahid to go into the room and think there for five minutes and then tell me whether or not he has stolen the stuff. Zahid drank acid of a UPS battery there.” He said he along with Mubin, the man who had requested him to give Zahid job in his shop, went hospital where Zahid confessed that he himself drank acid to avoid possible punishment.